CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS OF THE GEORGIA COAST. 113 



Fig. 64.— Piercing 

 implement of 

 bone. Mound 

 C. (Full size.) 



Ossabaw Island, Bryan County. Middle Settlement, Mound D. 



This mound, in the same cultivated field as Mound B and distant 

 from it about two hundred yards in a southwesterlj- direction, had a 

 height at the time of our visit (December, 1896) of 3 feet 9 inches. 

 It was evident from the appearance of the mound that long cultiva- 

 tion had materially decreased the height of central portions, carrying- 

 down the material to its marginal parts. As the beginning of the 

 slope is no sure indication of boundary among the low mounds of the 

 sea-islands of Georgia, especially those long subject to the plow, pits 

 were dug and tentative trenches run in from a considerable distance 

 out, in a vain endeavor to locate the presence of that dark layer 

 corresponding to the original surface, so frequently present. Finally, 

 taking a certain thickening of the surface soil as an indication, a 

 eircle with a diameter of 82 feet was drawn ; the highest portion of 

 the mound, a peak of shell, forming the center. 



The mound was sliced down with the utmost care, those digging, 

 where it seemed necessary, going as much as 8 feet below its surface. 

 Of the many mounds it has been our fortune to investigate, none has 

 offered more difficulty in the description of the limits of its component 

 parts. The undisturbed sub-sand was light yellow, at times almost 

 white. Above this came darker yellow sand somewhat discolored by 

 the presence of organic matter and showing a certain amount of 

 disturbance discernible by the presence of streaks, bits of charcoal, 

 etc., but no distinct dark line marking the base was anywhere 

 apparent. Over this layer came a final one of dark brown sand, 

 which, like the disturbed yellow layer, locally varied in thickness so 

 that no, general data were obtainable. Moreover, the dark brown 

 layer and the yellow layer below it, so merged together that a line of 

 division was indistinguishable even to the most careful and most 

 experienced observers. At the central portion of the mound was a 

 layer of shell at first beneath the surface and having at the beginning 

 but the thickness of a single shell, increasing gradually toward the 

 center and merging with a second layer of shell which made its 

 appearance several feet farther in, all around, until, at the immediate 

 center of the mound, it appeared at the surface and extended to a 

 considerable depth below the base, forming the great shell pit shown 

 in the cross-section (Fig. 65). This shell layer had probably an 

 average diameter of 30 feet. The portion exposed at the surface was 

 about 15 feet in diameter as shown in the cross-section. The shells 

 comprising these layers, while mainly of the oyster, included also 

 those of the clam, the conch (Fulgtir), various marine mussels, the 

 "cockle" (Cardtum) and numerous smaller salt water shell-fish. 



